What To Do with My Old Letters and Greeting Cards

There’s a box of “things” that I’ve been moving around for years and before that, it sat in my parent’s basement. A storage room purge led me to open it up. Inside the box was a bag… a bag of old letters and greeting cards. The newest letter in this bag was 36 years old and some of the messages inside had been written 45 years ago.

Before you judge me, just know that letters and cards have always been my weakness. I think it’s because they don’t take up that much space. Besides this bag, I had file folders in a file drawer also loaded with more recent cards and letters. So I wouldn’t have to go through this whole process again, I grabbed those folders as well. It’s sort of a cleansing exercise!

The first thing I had to consider now with all of this paper dumped out in front of me, was whether it would be worth my time (now or ever) to go through it. Something in me just can’t let go that easily. I at least had to look through it all. Something else in me screams – please don’t spend too much time on this!

The steps below are the ones I’ve already taken. I’ve also outlined my plan going forward and will hopefully finish this project within a month or two and be able to report back on how it turned out!

Step 1:

Cards – I started by looking at the signature in each greeting card and sorting them into piles. I have to confess that I caught myself reading some of the messages along the way, but mostly I resisted the temptation.

parents

grandparents and great grandparents

sister

other relatives

school friends

close friends each got their own pile

romantic interests

people I looked up to

trash pile for cards I’m definitely not interested in reading or preserving

Step 2:

Letters – Next, I sorted the letters into the same piles as the cards.

Step 3:

Decided what to do with my old letters and greeting cards. Here are the options I considered:

Read each remaining card or letter and then throw them all in the trash. Definitely the least time-consuming option.

Read each remaining card or letter and take notes on any memories that come to mind… and then throw them all in the trash.

Preserve some of the signatures. Cut them out and make a collage or take a photo of them.

Scan or take a photo of meaningful letters or messages inside greeting cards.

Save meaningful letters or messages inside greeting cards for putting in a scrapbook.

In the end, I decided to combine several of the ideas above and create a book for myself. I’m not a scrapbooker in the traditional sense, but I want to put together a memoir/scrapbook and self-publish it just for me. I believe this will take me less time, cost less, and take up less space when it’s done.

So here is my plan for the old letters and greeting cards…

Lay out all of my friends’ signatures on a single sheet of paper. Take a photo of it. This will become a single page in my book. I will add a title and maybe some notes once it’s on the computer.

On another page, I will put the signatures of special loved ones. I think I will leave space for a photo of each. It may end up taking more than one page.

Take photos or scan letters or messages that I want to include.

Write. Since seeing the cards reminded me of people, relationships, events, and more, I thought it would be interesting to choose a few and write about them. I had a fair amount of guilt and self-judgment arise in my initial look. Hopefully exploring the situations and the emotions tied to them will be therapeutic! To make the pages more interesting, I will also use photos or scans of the related messages to enhance the stories.

Put it all together in a document on my computer.

Publish it as a paperback book on Blurb* and have one copy printed just for me. I anticipate the cost being less than $10, as I choose “trade book” instead of “photo book”. I don’t think I will feel the need to make it a hardcover book, but if I do, they have options for that too.

So do you have old letters and greeting cards hiding in a box, a bag, or a folder? What other ideas do you have for dealing with them? Let me know in the comments below!

What To Do with My Old Letters and Greeting Cards was last modified: March 7th, 2018 by Val Brennan

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